Foucha has high praise for young Arkansas secondary

University of Arkansas Razorback Joe Foucha participates in football spring practice Tuesday, March 26, 2019, on campus in Fayetteville.

— Arkansas sophomore safety Joe Foucha and his secondary mates are in the takeaway business, and business is good so far.

Foucha (5-11, 195) noted that the defense came up with six turnovers on the two practice fields during Wednesday’s fifth workout of preseason camp.

“It just makes us want to create more turnovers because we’ve got this deal where we’re in the meeting room together as a defense, we show the turnovers,” Foucha said. “It’s like a big hype thing for us, so just seeing that, guys want to be on that video of turnovers. That hypes us up to get turnovers every day.”

During Tuesday’s practice, Razorbacks defensive coordinator John Chavis ran down a sideline after freshman safety Jalen Catalon’s interception return for a touchdown.

Chavis’ dash with his arms flailing led to talk about his playing days at Tennessee from Arkansas defensive back coach Ron Cooper.

“Coop said he’d get it back in his day,” Foucha said. “… Coop said (Chavis) used to be fast. After seeing that, I kind of believe him.”

Arkansas had full pads on for the first time on Wednesday, but didn’t go live. The Razorbacks will do so Thursday and have a light practice Friday before scrimmaging Saturday.

“It’s very big because you know we’re going to be live,” Foucha said of the scrimmage. “Guys are going to fly around. It’s not like how practices have been going. We’ve been kind of lightening it up with the contact, being physical and stuff like that, but (Thursday) is going to be like our first day live. The scrimmage Saturday is going to have us running around, head on fire, stuff like that.”

The former New Orleans (La.) McDonough 35 standout seemingly came in with plenty of confidence, but he admits that he was a bit puzzled early last season as he adjusted to the speed of the college game.

He played in nine games as a freshman with 141 of his 192 total snaps coming on defense, recorded 11 tackles and started the season finale against Missouri.

“Like I said, last year was for me to get my feet wet,” Foucha said. “I’m more confident this year. I’m reading things better this year. I can read the tight end better, so this year for me is going to be cocky. I’m going to be confident this year.

“It’s not going to be like last year when I was a little bit nervous. It was fast for me, so it’s slowed all the way down - like all the way.”

Foucha has been impressed with the four true freshmen Arkansas brought in with free saftey/nickel Catalon (5-10, 196) and cornerbacks Devin Bush (6-0 203), Greg Brooks (5-11, 179) and Malik Chavis (6-2, 198).

“Most definitely the cornerbacks,” Foucha said of the most impressive group he has seen. “They’re playing most aggressive. Like, when it’s the 1 (receiver) and he’s going in an under route, they’re putting a body on him, so that’s like the most impressive thing I’ve seen so far.”

Catalon has made a habit of intercepting passes so far this preseason and had another one on Wednesday.

“The quarterback was John Stephen (Jones),” Foucha said. “He was reading the Y, and so the Y popped up and Catalon caught it from underneath. It was a pick-6. It was a good one, too.”

Foucha, who chose Arkansas over Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M, LSU, Tennessee and others, is also very impressed with Brooks, who enrolled in January along with Bush and may start at the nickel.

“I wouldn’t say maybe because he has been balling,” Foucha said. “He has been balling since the day he got here. He is doing even better. He is jumping routes. He can play the 7. He is definitely going to be a guy on the team that can do something this year.”

Foucha believes that this secondary has a chance to be vastly better than last season’s even if it is younger.

“…The cornerbacks are different, so everything is just different, and the biggest thing for me and the rest of the defense is the communication because we cannot start without the communication,” Foucha said.

“…We had a lot of bad habits last year, so this year we picked it up, and we hide the post now. We don’t show where the blitz is coming from, so that makes it better on the guys that are covering.”

Foucha is also very impressed with Arkansas true freshmen wide receivers Treylon Burks (6-3, 223) and Trey Knox (6-5, 205).

“(Burks) reminds me of (NFL wide receiver) Julio (Jones) with his size and his ease and how he can catch a ball in any position," he said. "So it definitely would be Treylon Burks.

“I didn’t see the catch today, but I definitely saw the catch yesterday on film. At first we thought he didn’t catch it, but we watched it on another video and a better angle and he grabbed it in. He is going to do some big things also.”